


remember (the truth once was spoken)

by artsyspikedhair



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Child Abuse, Lowercase, Other, Past Child Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Repressed Memories, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-21
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-19 01:30:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9411449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyspikedhair/pseuds/artsyspikedhair





	

cosette was small and her memories of her mother were lost. the thenardiers were the only family she had ever conciously known. they gave her clothes and put the fear of punishment into her. they gave her chores to do. that was what family was for. cosette assumed all families had a bad child. 

cosette was scared of going out after dark. she was only a child of seven, but going to the well at night terrified her for reasons she would no longer remember in the years to come. 

cosette was saved, by a man with all the money he coud want and for some reason, he had wanted her happy. nobody had ever wanted her happy before, except for er poor sweet mother fantine, whom cosette would never know. jean valjean told her stories, but it wasn't the same. the only remnant of fantine was jean's memory, and cosette stopped asking after a while. 

cosette grew up in the covenant. she went to school and saw her papa tending the gardens. she made friends, but she never befriended girls who looked like her old sisters. at night she would cry sometimes, the fierce ache of bruised skin no longer in the past when she dreamt. but on the whole she was a happy girl, ugly from years of starvation, but happy with her papa and her bible and school. and with that happiness came a sort of beauty, the beauty of childhood that she was finally allowed to have. 

jean valjean left the covenant when cosette was fourteen. the two stayed in an old house, and cosette grew interested in fashion. she enjoyed walks with her papa, and slowly she fell in love with a boy she saw on those walks. 

the love affair involved letters from the boy, marius. it was sweet and pure, a love only two who had never been loved as small creatures could have. marius had been under the eye of his cruel grandfather, and cosette, well we all know what happened to cosette. but the two shared their memories, and in talking of dark things, the things became lighter with the force of their love. 

one day cosette was with marius, when they ran into his neighbor. eponine was now a sickly sight to see, all angles with hay in her hair from sleeping outside. still, she was pleased to see marius, and cried out to him. "marius!" 

"oh cosette, this is eponine. she's my neighbor and friend. she helped me meet you, actually." 

cosette looked at the girl. she knew her, from somewhere, but wasn't sure where. certainly not the covenant. suddeny a memory struck her, and she ran, first untangling her hand from marius'. 

the gir was cosette's od sister, eponine. cosette was only five when she became scared of the dark, and it was eponine who had made her that way. eponine had pinned her to the ground by the well, touching her in the parts that now bled but back then hadn't. cosette had cried out but nobody was going to help her. eponine had hurt her. 

cosette still loved marius. but she was wary, now. 


End file.
